Marina Brook, Head of Sales StorageCraft, APAC

Data&StorageAsean : In your own words - What is Object Storage?
StorageCraft: Modern object storage architecture allows for highly scalable and flexible scale-out storage. Object Storage de-couples the restrictive relationship of the data to the file system and the underlying hardware, by leveraging metadata and providing protection mechanisms built around individual objects and their placement.

Data&StorageAsean : What are the major use cases for Object Storage Solutions?
StorageCraft: Initial uptake began with the large implementations such as Amazon S3, Facebook, Google and Apple which are multi-Petabyte and built around single applications for scale.
Exablox is now seeing a lot of interest in using object storage technology in the corporate and mid-market to deal with challenges around file system growth, forklift upgrades of modular storage arrays, and lengthy RAID rebuild times.
Specifically file workloads in post-production, engineering, medical, research and education as well as a purpose built backup target, integrating with numerous backup applications due to the use of file protocols. Exablox has a strong focus on the mid–market unstructured file workload and backup and recovery workload with our de-dupe capability. The Exablox solution provides Object store scale and features, with the simplicity of network based protocols such as SMB and NFS.

Data&StorageAsean : Should object storage be on premise or in the cloud?
StorageCraft: Object Storage should be considered wherever there is expected to be a significant amount of data, growth, or a requirement for reliable storage. As hard drives increase in size and traditional RAID technologies become increasingly difficult to manage, object storage should be considered as a replacement for large sized modular storage silos.

Data&StorageAsean : What are some of the key features people should look for when choosing an object storage solution?
StorageCraft: Some of the key features our partners are looking for include Ease of Use, Scale-out, Deduplication, Continuous snapshots, Real-time replication and Encryption.
Additionally, TCO of managing the environment should be considered when looking at various options, including:

• Specialized administration capability requirements from internal staff

• Specialized rack or locked in vendor support for components

• Vendor support model

• Integration with existing applications and storage architecture

• Requirements for management system overheads such as configuration or monitoring VMs

• Installation, expansion, and upgrade times

Data&StorageAsean : Is there anything unique about your company’s object storage offering(s)?
StorageCraft: Our unique offering is the Exablox solution which provides an easy to use Object Storage Appliance. This focus on ease of use allows customers to access an SMB or NFS share within 5 minutes of deployment, expand in a node by simply inserting a new hard drive, or expand further with auto-join nodes added to a cluster without requiring storage array configuration.  We provide secure cloud based management for all of a customer’s Exablox environments, reducing complexity of customer run management software, and providing universal access to advanced data management and protection features such as CDP, Global de-duplication, compression and replication without requiring advanced technical skills.